Something worth remembering

Whether you love or hate the Miami Heat, last week's NBA Finals in which LeBron James cemented his status as the best player in the game alongside teammate Dwyane Wade and against Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Kevin Durant might have been easy to take for granted. At this point in time, it's just accepted that African American athletes like the trio above are as much a part of the U.S. sports fabric as anybody of any color in our athletic history, and that race shouldn't matter in discussing such things.

Less than 24 hours after James won his first title, a group of African Americans from a very different era gathered at the Fifth Season Inn in Amarillo to celebrate their own triumphs. Carver High held a reunion to celebrate its state athletic championships between 1948-67, most notably the 1952 football team's state championship. The Dragons and their opponents were entirely black, as they didn't compete with the schools in the UIL, who were almost entirely white.

Such segregation seems an anathema in these days, as it's hard to picture any athletic team having much success without some contributions from African-Americans. The fact that Carver closed in 1967 due to integration could be seen as a positive sign of improved race relations, at least athletically. No one bats an eye over blacks and whites playing alongside and against each other at any level of competition.

When I talked to those athletes who attended Carver and won championships, there was little if any sense of bitterness over the segregation and prejudice they may have encountered back in the days where there were certain places they weren't even allowed to eat. They were proud of their accomplishments and the life lessons they learned under their coach Johnny Allen. By the way, Allen is the last coach to lead an Amarillo city football team to a state title.

Even if blacks couldn't exactly consider that era to be the "good old days", the Carver athletes who won titles look back on them fondly, as well they should. It's hard to imagine local African American athletes around here (or most other places for that matter) getting the type of recognition they enjoy today without the dues paid by those who preceeded them at Carver a couple of lifetimes earlier.